


Perfect

by Zaker04



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 20:51:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zaker04/pseuds/Zaker04
Summary: A little one shot about friendship, timing, and everything in between.





	Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a lil something I wrote in order to dissolve the writer's block and as a small birthday gift to myself. Hope you enjoy!

She took the key from the eerily cheerful student assistant. She doesn't remember the name. Julie? Julia? Doesn't matter. She marches up the stairs, lugging her suitcase behind. Three knocks. 

"Come in!"

She opens the door to find a blonde girl's back hunched over a desk. 

She stands in the doorway awkwardly. "Hi, I'm your new roommate."

The girl turns around, cheshire cat grin plastered on her face. 

"Hey there, freshie. Welcome to 214! I'm Carol." She stands, supermodel height in full display. She holds her hand out for a shake. 

"Therese." 

"Nice to meet you, Therese. I would help you get settled, but I have papers to write." She smiles apologetically. Therese likes her smile better than Julia's. She's enamored. She wants to know more. 

"What are you majoring in?"

"Comparative and World Lit. You?"

"Fine arts." 

"Ah. Creative hands," she winks, then turns back to her paper. 

_What the hell was that?_

\----------

"Carol, stop leaving your shit on the floor!" 

"I don't have time to clean all of it up," says the blonde hunched over a dozen tomes, books thicker than Therese's wrist. 

She picks everything up, candy wrappers, empty cups of noodles, even Carol's underwear, and tries to tidy the whole place up. 

It's still a mess. 

She looks at the blonde who had now fallen asleep over the study table, walks over and switches off the desk lamp. "You're lucky you're cute," she whispers, assuming Carol was asleep. 

She wasn't. 

\----------

Therese comes home drunk after a gallery exhibit. There's always plenty of wine in those, and that was the sole reason she always attends them. Carol was binge-watching true crime documentaries on her laptop when Therese shuffles across the dorm room, drops her bag on the floor, kicks off her shoes, and falls into Carol's bed instead of her own. 

"Therese, this isn't your bed."

"I know. Scooch." 

Carol does. "Are you drunk?"

"Maybe." 

They go through fifteen more minutes of Josef Fritzl's crimes before they start making out. 

\----------

The sex had become a regular thing. For one of them, it was a great way to relieve stress. For the other, it was a mask, pretending it was just sex in order to push down her true feelings. 

Everything was going well until she blurted it out right before she left for class. 

"Be back in 3. I love you!" 

She slammed the door. 

Shit. 

Shitshitshit. 

On the other side of the door, Carol hung her head on her hands. She sighs. _Well that was nice while it lasted._

They stopped immediately after that. It was for the best. 

\----------

Carol started dating other people shortly after. Therese wanted to move out, but it was impossible to switch rooms in the middle of the semester. _Great fucking job. The best sex of your life, and you decided to screw it up. Look at you. Now look at her. Did you seriously think you could ever be together? Pathetic, Therese._

Now she had to watch Carol sleep in the arms of another man, woman, or whoever it is she decides to bring home that night. She felt like a fucking hors d'eouvre. Something to whet Carol's appetite before she ravished the whole university. 

What a bitch. 

\----------

They were civil again before the end of the semester, and decided to stay as roommates. They had a nice routine going, Carol said. Therese would clean, Carol would bring home food, and they knew how to stay out of each other's businesses. It would be a shame to lose that. 

Therese agreed. 

They bid each other goodbyes with promises to keep in touch. 

\----------

At the start of the fall semester, Carol excitedly wheeled her suitcase to 214. Therese's favourite author had just released a book three days prior, and she hoped Therese didn't have it yet. A signed, hardbound copy was tucked neatly under her arm, wrapped in a red bow. 

She opened the door to see Therese making out with a girl. Carol hid the book quickly. 

\----------

Therese noticed that Carol's escapades had waned so drastically that they were practically nonexistent. The only time Carol would bring people over were to write a paper, watch movies, write a paper about those movies, and that was it. Out of all of Carol's friends there was one person in particular that she liked, Abby. She was funny and despite Carol's protests, she lets Therese have some of her weed brownies. 

Meanwhile, her relationship with Genevieve was slowly dwindling down. According to How I Met Your Mother, vacation romances have an expiration date, and they were right. Therese and Genevieve broke up after a heated argument about which dinosaur would survive longest in a modern setting. 

Carol burst into laughter as soon as Genevieve slammed the door. Therese joined in the laughter soon after. 

\----------

Therese and Abby sat side by side next to the parents of the students. Carol's mother died a long time ago, and her father could care less about her, so she asked her two best friends to attend the ceremony. Therese snapped photos of the blonde in her robes, pride at her throat and tears in her eyes. Abby smiles. 

"She loves you too, you know."

"What?" 

"Carol. She's in love with you. I know it didn't work out the first time, and you might think it's too late now that she's graduating, but I think you two are perfect together."

Therese looked at Carol who was now starting to walk up to the stage to get her diploma. She raised her camera to her face to hide the tears. 

\----------

Carol took a job and an apartment ten miles from the campus. Therese helped her move in. 

"Well, that's the last of the boxes," she said hastily, eager to leave. 

"Therese, wait."

Her arm trapped in Carol's hand, she turned around to see icy daggers penetrating her soul. "Thank you." 

"Sure."

They didn't see each other again after that. 

\----------

Three years later, it was Therese's turn to graduate. Abby sat next to the students' parents, one seat saved for the surprise guest. 

"I couldn't get a damn sitter."

"It's fine. She'll understand. Give me her," Abby reached out for the sleeping toddler nestled in Carol's arms. 

After the ceremony, Therese walked over to Abby and was greeted by two surprise guests. Carol, whom she had not seen in years, and what looked to be Carol's child, sleeping in Abby's arms. 

Therese faltered. 

Carol couldn't contain herself and wrapped her in her arms. So much left unsaid in three years, yet all she could do was to pour her heart out in that embrace. 

They both cried. 

\----------

Abby took the baby home after the graduation dinner. Therese went outside to smoke a cigarette. 

"Can we talk?" 

She just shrugged. 

"I've missed you so much." 

"Who's the dad?" 

"He's out of the picture." 

Therese looked up to see a barrage of emotions go through Carol's eyes. Pain, anger, regret, misery, longing, hope. 

"What now?" 

"I'm taking a job in Europe. France." 

"When do you leave?" 

"Three months."

Carol holds her hand. 

\----------

They stay on each other's radars for the next three months. As it turns out, Therese was great with kids and Rindy has taken a liking to her. 

Carol tries, _really_ tries, to fit an entire relationship in three months. Dinner dates and walks in the park, she convinces herself it's enough. 

It was never enough. 

\----------

Therese meets someone in France. Tall. Blonde. Blue eyes. Gorgeous. But not quite enough. She tries to make it work. Anything to make her stop thinking of Carol. 

\----------

She goes home after two years, tagging Stella along with her. She runs into Abby and Carol in the supermarket. They invite her to Rindy's birthday party. She accepts. 

\----------

She brings multiple gifts. A watercolor set, a new doll, some designer clothes, a camera. Call it compensation, but she's really fond of the kid. 

Another thing she brings with her: Stella. 

She didn't want to stay at home and demanded to meet her friends. Therese couldn't change her mind. She apologizes to Carol for the unexpected plus one. 

Carol smiles. 

"No worries."

\----------

Stella was being rude at the party. Demanding Therese's attention while she was playing with Rindy, making snide remarks about Americans and their cuisine. Therese snapped. 

"Stella, I'm apple pie. Okay? And I'm oily spring rolls. And I'm Caesar salad and the dressing that's 'too sour for France' and bad California wine. That's me. That's who I am. And if you can't accept that, then I'm sorry." 

Stella leaves the party, takes her things from the hotel, and takes the next flight to Paris. 

\----------

The children go home by 5pm. Abby takes Rindy out for gourmet ice cream. Carol approaches Therese on the patio. 

"Sorry about your girl." 

She shrugs. "I wasn't really into her anyway." 

"Really? But she's so... Perfect." 

Therese turns around, looks Carol in the eyes. She takes her face in her hands and kisses her. Softly. 

"I don't want perfect. I want you."


End file.
